Opera recently released the Opera 10.5, the fastest browser on earth. If you are someone who lives out of a USB stick, you do not need to download and install the Windows version. Previously mentioned Portable Opera, have released a new standalone version of Opera 10.5 which you can run from a USB drive.

If you have already been using an earlier version of Opera Portable, you can also download an updater, which will update your current install to Opera 10.5.

The portable version can also be used to try out Opera 10.5 without having to actually install it on your system. Either ways, I highly recommend Opera 10.5 to users as it is definitely the fastest browser available today.

Note taking is a good practice, because you can reference the notes and remember the things that needs to be done at a later time. If you work in front of computer for long hours, it’s recommended to use a note taking application such as Evernote.

But managing a separate program just for the sake of taking notes, might be too geeky. Why not use your browser? Why not use Google Chrome to pen down notes while you surf the web or check email?

Enter Chromepad – a Google Chrome extension which lets you store pieces of text within the browser. The notes are kept safe as long as the browser works and it’s very easy to setup and use. After the extension is installed, you will see a small notebook icon placed at the right of the Google Chrome address bar.

Click the icon and you can type or paste text items and links. Apart from clearing the text from the “Menu” link, there are no options to configure and nothing which you can tweak. (also read: Best Google Chrome extensions)

Techie Buzz Verdict

I love using this extension because it’s simple, less distracting and hassle free. A couple of more options like adding rich text, clickable links and numbered items would be even more useful. Not as versatile as the Sticky notes extension, but sometimes you need things that are straight forward.

Firefox 3.7 Alpha 2 will be officially released in the next few days, however, the release schedule does not have the actual date of the release, but you can download Firefox 3.7 Pre Alpha 2 "Minefield" right now from their FTP Repository.

Firefox 3.7 Alpha 2 will come with the 1.9.3 Gecko engine, and also includes new icons and other features which makes Firefox a bit faster than the earlier versions. The Pre-Alpha does have a stable version of separate processes for Plugins which works better than my earlier tests.

However, Firefox 3.7 did fail the Acid3 test and was given a rating of 96/100 as compared to current version of Opera and Google Chrome, which both received 100/100 in the Acid3 tests. Even Firefox 3.6 had a Acid3 rating of 96/100.

If you are a brave-heart and want to test the Pre-Alpha2 of Firefox 3.7, head over to the nightly build repository and download the appropriate version. FF 3.7 Pre-Alpha2 is available for downloads for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Welcome again to our weekly column Browser Saturday, where the Techie Buzz team will try to aggregate the latest innovations and updates around the browser world. Check the previous post here.

Mozilla Developers Working On A New JavaScript Optimizer: JaegerMonkey

Mozilla developers are now working on a new JavaScript optimizer for Mozilla based browsers like Firefox. This new project, named JaegerMonkey (or JÃ¤gerMonkey), will replace Mozilla’s current JavaScript optimizer TraceMonkey. JaegerMonkey will have the features of TraceMonkey and Nitro (WebKit’s JavaScript engine) both.

Mozilla’s JavaScript optimizer, TraceMonkey, is pretty powerful. It carefully observes loops and converts them to super-fast assembly. We call this tracing. That’s great and all, but there’s a problem: sometimes tracing doesn’t work. Loops can throw curveballs that cause tracing to stop. Especially with recursion, or lots of nesting, it can be very difficult to build good traces on complex code. Other JavaScript engines, such as Nitro (present in WebKit/Safari), take a simpler approach. Instead of compiling loops to assembly, they compile entire methods (functions) to assembly.

We’re taking the tried-and-true approach of other vendors, and bolting trace compilation on top. Once the two are interacting seamlessly, you’ll have a much more consistent and fast JavaScript performance experience.

This project is in the initial phase at the moment, and the team is very excited about it. After its implementation, Mozilla based browsers will have super fast JavaScript rendering speed, similar to WebKit based browsers. :)

Opera 10.50 Beta For Windows And Mac

Opera 10.5 Beta for Mac platform has been released. This release includes some exciting features like Growl notifications, unified tool bar and Multi-touch gestures. The Opera team has also released 10.5 beta 2 for Windows.

Where is Mozilla Ubiquity?

Erez Zukerman of DownloadSquad has posted about the current development status of Mozilla Ubiquity. This post was widely discussed among developers, and finally Aza Raskin, the head of User Experience for Mozilla Labs, has replied Erek’s post. Raskin writes on his blog:

Ubiquity is currently on the back burner, with the core Ubiquity people now working on Jetpack (myself and Atul Varma) and Test Pilot (Jono Xia). In the next couple of months I will be focusing on a new project that incorporates some of the learnings from Ubiquity and Taskfox.

Chrome Lock: This extension claims to lock Google Chrome, and hence it prevents unauthorized use of the browser when you are not at your desk. Users can set their password to unlock the browser. Unfortunately, it is not working at my end (Windows, 5.0.335.0 build 39559), but many users have posted positive reviews. :)

Mozilla was one of the first browsers to talk about native code compilation for JavaScript. In fact, this is what allowed Firefox and Chrome to zoom ahead of other browsers in terms of rendering speed. However, now that other browsers have also implemented similar features, Firefox has once again fallen behind.

Obviously, Mozilla isn’t pleased with the current situation. In most speed tests, current builds of Firefox end up getting trashed by every browser other than Internet Explorer. This has prompted Mozilla to begin work on a new engine called JaegerMonkey.

TraceMonkeygetting started and it will possibly take several months for this to appear even in the alpha builds of Firefox. Nevertheless, this gives Firefox users something to look forward to.

The Opera team is getting closer and closer to the release candidate for Opera 10.5. Earlier today, the Opera team announced the release of Opera 10.5 Beta 2 which contains several significant changes over Opera 10.5 Beta 1.

Opera 10.5 Beta 2 packs in several significant changes to the browser including better integration with Windows 7 including Aero Glass, Aero Peek and Jumplists. It also optimizes on the Carakan JavaScript engine by adding a cross-platform bytecode interpreter among other things.

A new Opera "O" tab and menu also replaces the traditional Opera Menu bar and increases vertical space in the Opera window, centralizing several used features and tools in a single convenient location. Opera 10.5 Beta 2 also makes use of the Presto 2.5 rendering engine for better CSS support, along with more support for HTML5 and SVG.

The most important change in 10.5 Beta, at-least according to me is the introduction of Opera Widgets for Desktop which is similar to Prism for Firefox and Applications shortcuts in Google Chrome. The desktop widgets will now perform as native applications on user computer.

There are also several significant changes to Private browsing and Web Storage. You can read all the changes in Opera 10.5 Beta 2 here.

Firefox’s Private Browsing Mode enables users to browse the web privately. It empowers users to surf websites without storing browsing data (URLs, cookies, page content etc.). But, now Mozilla has discovered that Private Browsing Mode (PBM) in Firefox is partially broken, and browsing data get stored even if a user has enabled PBM.

According to a blog post on official Mozilla Add-ons blog, this flaw generates because of Firefox Add-ons:

Add-ons have the ability to obtain and store browsing data, and some of these add-ons may not be taking PBM into account. This is a breach of the user’s privacy expectations when using PBM, so we will be updating our policies shortly, requiring add-ons to respect PBM.

Mozilla has announced to update user privacy policies soon. To overcome this problem, Mozilla has planned two different levelsof privacy support:

If an add-on stores browsing data in any way, it must support PBM. This support cannot be disabled in any way.

If an add-on stores some other type of personal data, support for PBM is optional.

In the referred blog post, Mozilla has suggested add-on developers to ensure PBM support for their add-ons. This is another issue discovered with Firefox add-ons recently. Few weeks ago, two experimental add-ons were found to be infected with trojans. Although, later Mozilla informed that these reports were false.

Welcome to the first post of our new weekly column Browser Saturday, where the Techie Buzz team will try to aggregate latest innovations and updates around the browser world.

Firefox is one of the 25 Technologies that changed the decade

The eWeek.com has listed Firefox among the 25 technologies that changed the decade. Firefox is at 9th place. eWeek says:

Just a few years ago, the future of the Web and the browser looked bleak. Internet Explorer dominated the market, and Microsoft wasn’t interested in browser innovation. But when Mozilla released Firefox, we finally got real browser choice and innovation.

Firefox is the only software product in Top 10. OpenOffice.org, Gmail, Ajax and iPhone are the other names in the list.

Arora is not DEAD!!

Arora is a light-weight cross-platform WebKit based browser, which comes with a unique feature: built-in Ad blocker. I personally appreciate Arora (& it is my alternate browser!). Unfortunately, the development process is too slow and users were suspecting if the project has been abandoned. But Benjamin Meyer, the main developer behind Arora, recently responded to a mail thread and explained his future plans. Meyer told:

I did suspend my own development for several months while I determined if I could actually work on Arora and related libraries at my new place of employment (My old company TorchMobile was bought by RIM). At the end of the summer there was a ton of development mostly by me trying to get the adblock stuff in. Going from that to nothing doesn’t look good in retrospect. More recently I have been reviewing various patches and some have gone in. I will be making another release in the near future.

Another Chrome Extension To Download Flash Videos in official gallery. Will Google remove it too?

Flash Video Download is a new extension for Google Chrome. It enables users to download flash videos from the sites like dailymotion and YouTube. The extension is hosted in the official Chrome extension gallery (owned by Google). In past, Google had removed such extensions from gallery because such extensions violate gallery policies to not create extensions that enable the unauthorized download of streaming content or media.

Interestingly, now there are many similar extensions featuring in gallery (another here). Will Google remove these extensions again?

Microsoft reveals browser ballot screen

Microsoft has revealed the browser ballot screen, which will be available to Windows users in EU soon. Download Squad reports that the rollout begins from the next week.

Firefox is the world’s most customizable browser. It has got awesome add-ons, it has an awesome cloud based backup solution for all your bookmarks and personal data and it just got even more awesome with the release of a Mobile version. With the mobile Firefox Fennec for Nokia N900, you can use all the popular features from the desktop browser right into your Nokia N900 mobile. This comes as a boon for those of you who are die-hard fans of Firefox.

This release of Firefox for mobile recently got officially accepted by Nokia to be put into the Ovi Store. The Ovi Store approval process took around two weeks, though it is finally through and available for download right from the Ovi Store.

The Ovi Store also features the closest competitor of Firefox for mobile, the Opera Mini browser. The Store introduced Firefox with the lines,

The world’s best Web browser has gone mobile. Get it now on your Nokia N900.

This approval allows uses to direct their web-browsers to the store and download the application for their N900. The addition is a remarkable milestone in the development and growth of Firefox for mobile which had created a huge buzz and has lived up to it as well. You can see the Ovi Store page featuring Firefox for mobile at this link.

If you are a regular reader of Techie Buzz, you must have already seen posts like Twitter Tuesdays and Webby Wednesdays. In the same way, DYK Thursdays are themed posts that concentrate on bringing out amazing facts in the world to our readers, from various fields of technology. Every week, I will be gathering some of the most amazing facts in this section. Wishing myself best of luck!

P.S. DYK = Did You Know?

The Book Of Mozilla

Did you know that there is a book written by the world famous Mozilla group? Yes, this is true! Mozilla has created an easter egg for its users called “The Book Of Mozilla”. This book is a compilation of prophecies that refers to Mozilla. A new prophecy is added every time a new version of Mozilla is released.

At present, there are about 5 prophecies written about the Mozilla Browser – the first prophecy starting from the release of Netscape Navigator 1.0 (10th December 1994).

Apart from the official prophecy, there are some unofficial ones as well. These were associated with Flock browser.

These prophecies are written in apocalyptic literature as in Bible. If you want to see the present prophecy of this book from your Mozilla Firefox, direct your mouse pointer to the address bar and type in, “about:mozilla”. It would direct you to a page (maroon color) containing the prophecy associated with the latest release. You can even see all the prophecies written till date, through this page created by Mozilla or even the Wikipedia article here. The wikipedia article even has a screenshot of the unofficial Flock browser prophecy.

Every prophecy has a meaning hidden in it about the Mozilla. It can be understood if you have good knowledge about the Mozilla history. Nevertheless, if you can’t crack the meaning hidden in those prophecies, you can view the source code of this Mozilla page. (Click on the image to view it larger.)

The source code shows the details of every verse

A Wikipedia note on the prophecies,

The five verses all refer to the activities of a fearsome-sounding “beast”. In its early days, Netscape Communications Corporationhad a green fire-breathing dragon-like lizard mascot, known as Mozilla (after the code name for Netscape Navigator 1.0). From this, it can be conjectured that the “beast” referred to in The Book of Mozilla is a type of fire-breathing lizard, which can be viewed as a metaphor for, or personification of Netscape.

These prophecies were written by Valerio Capello in May 2004 and were added to the Mozilla Foundation site by Nicholas Bebout in October that year.

So, this was today’s fact!

Did you know that Google has created a number of hoax pages on April Fool’s day to fool its vast base of users?! Do you want to know what those hoaxes are? Subscribe here to Techie-Buzz and stay tuned for the next “DYK Thursday”